2011/5/21 Emmanuele Bassi <ebassi gmail com>:
> the "graphical interface" part is a definition that might have applied
> 10 years ago.
>
> the main lesson learned in these past 10 years is that writing a
> "graphical interface" in a vacuum, shielded by layers of abstractions
> is not only impossible: it's actively wrong.
>
> GNOME requires, in order to build a full user experience (not just the
> user interface bits, but also the interaction between them and the
> device, and the user), a full set of vertically designed and integrated
> capabilities: from the chosen kernel (generally Linux) to the low-level
> kernel/user space interaction (e.g. udev); from the IPC mechanism (e.g.
> D-Bus) to the initialization system; from the authentication and
> authorization framework up to the login manager — and we haven't even
> logged into the session yet!
Caro Emmanuele,
I disagree on your statements. It is true that a Desktop Environment
is, today, a sort of OS running on a OS. To use GNU/Linux with GNOME
is not the same thing of to use GNU/Linux with another Desktop
Environment, not only for users but for coders too. If I write an
application for GNOME, I'll use GNOME facilities like dconf while I'll
not use KDE framework like phonon.
But I repeat: GNOME is itself a sort of OS on top of an underlying OS.
Then, locking GNOME with GNU/Linux or a particular flavour of it is
wrong and is not the mood of the moment. For example, Bada OS runs on
top of Linux kernel or on top of a proprietary kernel. GNU runs on
Linux or on FreeBSD's kernel. Some GNU/Linux distributors are working
on integration of Android in its systems.
So, locking GNOME to Fedora is simply short-sighted: surely your GNOME
(/Fedora/GNU/Linux) OS will work fine, but the risk is that it
confines itself to work well on this platform and thus limits its
spread.
I would like to have GNOME integrated with AppArmor, not only SELinux,
I would like GNOME with ZFS snapshots support and Jails support on
GNU/kFreeBSD, and so on. Things like these could make GNOME something
more than another distribution.
I know this in less simple but it is what make GNOME a big project and
not a GUI for a few.
Ciao.
Guido.